Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Right'o!
I've said it before but i'll say it again... when they first did the play here in Paris, the first two main actors could NOT stand each other and were acting like in the play!
Incidently, the man (Raymond Gérôme) was the French voice for Rex Harrison in the film version of My Fair Lady!
The following is an excerpt of an obituary in The Independent (London)
"But Madeleine Robinson is also remembered for superb performances on stage, where she was a veritable bete de scene and a monstre sacre. Her hard early life had given her an embattled temperament, and if she disagreed with a fellow actor or the director she would argue her case with bitter determination and picturesque invective. She was a perfectionist. This indomitable purpose in pursuit of the very highest standards in acting was recognised, and often dreaded, by all she worked with. But in 1965 it won her the prize of Best Actress of the Year for her performance as an implacable Martha in Edward Albee's Qui a peur de Virginia Woolf? (Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?), which really brought out the wild animal in her.
Her outspoken and often wounding criticisms of fellow actors and incompetent directors made her the terror of rehearsals, when she would rip to pieces some young actor's carefully conceived image of his role. Without a moment's warning, she would walk out of rehearsals and of the play itself. She had no hesitation in coming to blows with a partner on stage. She laid into Raymond Gerome, who played the browbeaten husband to such effect that he took her to court - and she lost the case."
She would have been a terrific Mama Rose!
